Method of preparing plates for printing



M. LIGHTER;

METHOD OF PREPARING PLATES FOR PRINTING.

APPLICATION FILED 00123, I919.

1,348,01 9, Patented July 27, 1920. 4

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MALVIN LIGHTER, 0F. YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF PREPARING PLATES FOR PRINTING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J uly- 2'7, 1920.

Application filed October 23, 1919. Serial No. 332,695.

To all whom it may concern: r

Be it known that I, MALVIN LIGHTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Preparing Plates for Printing, of which the following is a full, clear, and concise description.

My invention relates to printing, and more especially to the production of printing plates-that is, plates provided with typographical surfaces and used in printing presses of various kinds, for the purpose of being alternately inked and impressed against blank sheets of paper, thus producing printed matter in a manner well understood in this art. I

More particularly stated, my invention comprehends the production of printing plates by the use of a typewriting machine,

in connection with some process, for instance a photolithographic process or a plate engraving process, in such manner as to avoid all necessity for type setting and distributing, but in which the lines of typographical characters are of uniform length, and as a consequence the printed lines made by impression of the plate upon paper are likewise of uniform length. v

Heretofore in this artprinting plates have been made from typewritten original sheets, but in such cases the lines of typographical characters carried by the plate were of different lengths, for the simple reason that the typewritten lines of the original sheet were not uniform in length.

Vhat I seek primarily to do, therefore, is to produce a typewritten original sheet upon which the lines are of uniform length, and then to make from this original sheet a printing plate the lines of which will of course be of the same proportionate dimensions as those of the original sheet and must necessarily therefore be of uniform length. Further, I seek to facilitate the work of the typist in spacing the words of each line of the original typewritten sheet, so as to render the lines thereof uniform in length.- Again, I seek to facilitate the proper spacing of the words in the different lines of the original typewritten copy sheet in order that the lines of the original typewritten sheet shall be of a common length.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and in which like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several'figures. T Figure l is a fragmentary plan view of thetrialsheet which in one form of my in vention is to be used as a guide, and then discarded.

.Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan XIIGW of an original typewritten sheet to be used as copy from which the plate is to be made, the'sheet being made by aid of the trial sheet shown in Fig. l, or not, as desired.

Fig. 3 is a plan view showing fragmentarily a printing plate made from the origirial sheet appearing in Fig. 2, and for this purpose serving as copy.

The trial sheet, which I preferably use in many instances but which'is not always 'essential, is shown fragmentarily in Fig. 1. This trial sheet is usually prepared under the direction of the publisher, but may by special arrangement or otherwise be made by any person capable of operating an ordinary vtypewriting machine, A. sheet of paper a. has typewritten upon it the matter Z), consisting of words formed into lines, the lines ending in numerals, as shown at the rightof'this figure. Except for these numerals, which are merely super-added to the lines, the typewriting does not differ from typewriting as ordinarily done. 'The manner in which the numerals are added is quite simple. As soon as the words of a line are completed, the typist merely adds, at the end of the line, enough numerals in the successive order 1, 2, '3, i, 5, etc, to render the line of a predetermined standard length,

this being the length of the longest line which could be written upon the typewriting machine without changing the adjustment thereof.- For instance according to Fig. 1 the maximum length of line would be the width of fifty seven letters (and spaces equalto letters) in width. The first or top line shown in Fig. 1 is, as to: its wording, short of this maximum length by the space required for two letters or numerals; hence the typist, after writing the last word of the line, to wit, the word States, forthwith begins putting in numerals beginning with the numeral 1, and

as soon as two numerals are thus added the line is brought up to the standard length. Similarly the second line has enough numerals added upon its end to bring it up to the maximum or standard length, four 1111- merely glance at the last or final numeral in each line, in order to determine the shortage of the line, considered as to its wording alone, as compared with the said standard length of line. For instance. the .bottom line shown in this figure ends with the numeral 3, indicating that the wording of this line is short by three spaces, or by a space equal to that occupied by three letters. The next tothe last line ends with the numeral 4, indicating that the wording of this line is short by thespace of four letters.

Thus when the trial sheet shown in Fig. l is completech'it carries its own, graphic symbols indicating the respective shortages in the length of the several lines.

the trial sheet shows on its'face all of the data needed'bythe typist. in order to enable the latter to typewrite a second sheet, corresponding line for ,line with the sheet shown in Fig. l, but with the numerals omitted and with the spacing of the words distributed difl'erently than that shown in I Fig. 1, so that the words alone will fill all of the lines out to the maximum length, as

shown in Fig. 2. This done the sheet shown in Fig.1, and which Idesignate as the trial sheet, may be discarded altogether or at least filed away for future reference and has nothing to do with the further steps of 7 my method.

The new. sheet made up as just described and shown in Fig. 2 differs from the trial sheet in no other respect than in the length of the lines, the spacing of the wordsto ob.-

;.;tain the length ofthe lines, and the omission of the numerals. The newsheet thus mads and shown in Fig. 2 I designate as the original typewritten sheet, because in subsequent operations it is to be treated as an original as the term is used in this art.

gFrom'the sheet of the kind indicated in Fig. 2 and consisting of the paper sheet 0 Hence carrying typewritten lines (Z of uniform length, a plate is made as shown in Fig. 3. T his-plate consists'of a fiat body member 0 provided with typographical characters f. The plate may be made by any process well known in this art, as for instancethe photolithographic process or the photoengraving process. :The plate may be reduced or enlarged 1n size as compared with the original,

and the typographical characters may be made either 1n reliel' or in mtagho, or may have any other characteristic which in this art can be conferred upon a printing plate.

The printing plate being completed, it is placed upon a printing press in the manner well knownin this art, andis alternately inked and pressed against sheets of paper,

so as to produce printed matter in any desired quantity.

I do not limit myself to each and every detail of my method-as above described, nor

to the identical structure of the articles of manufacture illustrated-and described at length, the scope'of my invention being commensurate with my claims.

1. The method, herein described, of making a printing plate, which consists in preparing a typewritten sheet having intelligible charact'ers'arranged in lines of diiier ent lengths and providing means thereon for indicating differences in the lengths of said lines, copying upon asecond sheet lines coinciding in subject matter with said first mentioned lines but of uniform length,

and making a printing plate from said sec- 0nd'mentloned'sheet.

. 2-. The method, herein described, of malemg a printing plate, which consists in type-' writing a sheet so [as to exhibit words arranged into lines varying slightly in length and also to exhibit graphic symbols indi: cating differences 1n the lengths of the re- SPQCtlVGllDQS, preparing a second sheet exhibiting said words arranged to run line for line with sand first mentioned sheet, said second sheet being free of said graphic symbols but h aving its wordsso spaced apart as to equallze the differences indicated by said- .g aphic symbols, so thiat'the lines of said second sheet are of a common length, and making a 'prmting plate from said second sheet.

: MALVIN LIGHTER. 

